Always
by DesertChocolate
Summary: Elizabeth was going to die. Rapture shattered around her, Atlas ready to bring Jack home, and the young girl she'd failed holding her hand. Then footsteps come towards her...
Elizabeth DeWitt was dying. She knew it. As assuredly as though it had already happened. Murdered by a traitorous bastard with a wrench, leaving a city in chaos, and a legacy for a man in a sweater to save it all.

She could live with that. Or die, as it were.

The pale skinned young woman turned her head slightly, her head pounding, and blood wet against her scalp and hair. Outside she could see fish swim past. The ocean beyond was haunting, with the buildings in the distance shining brilliantly.

She remembered the first time she'd entered Rapture. It was the saddest day of her life. She'd watched Songbird, her sweet protector, die under the pressure of the ocean. It had been a strange feeling. The massive being had protected her. And yet, he'd also kept her locked in her tower. Protector and captor. Watching him die, his large hand outstretched towards her… she still thought about it sometimes.

Moments later, she and two other versions of herself drowned her other protector.

She chuckled slightly as she lay against the cool glass behind her. How strange a coincidence. Comstock, Songbird, Booker. All men who'd ended up dying in water because of her.

 _"_ _I can see all the doors."_ She thought to herself as possibilities swirled into her mind. " _And what's behind all the doors."_ A sense of awe, warmth, and fulfillment came over her. _"_ _And behind one of them… Incredibly… I see him."_

He stood on stone stairs. The sun shone on an ocean behind him. He wore a goofy sweater, one that would have made her laugh. And yet, he seemed proud in it. Satisfied. A man who had seen the worst of himself, and come out for the better.

Her view switched. Now she was looking at his back. His hands were on his hips. And a bathysphere came out of the water in front of him, like the red toy of a child taking a bath. It came forwards. Three small figures stood inside. A small voice was singing. It was sad.

"Quand il me prend dans ses bras. Il me parle tout bas, Je vois la vie en rose. Il me dit des mots d'amour, des mots de tous les jours."

As the voice sang, light came upon the figures in the bathysphere. Little girls. Sally was one of them. She was healed. No longer a Little Sister. She held her doll. Elizabeth felt her left hand tighten around the head of the same doll. In the vision it had been reattached.

The man held a hand out to Sally. She clutched her doll, frightened. The man went to his knees, gently trying again, the sleeve of his arm rising slightly to reveal the chain tattoo on his wrist. Sally looked at the man's face. Then his hand.

She stepped into the light, took his hand. And smiled. An innocent, happy smile, with no fear. The smile of a child with a future ahead of her.

Sally was holding her hand now. Paler than in Elizabeth's vision, her doll headless, while her eyes glowed an eerie yellow. But smiling just the same. She was singing to her.

"Et ça me fait quelque chose." Sally lifted Elizabeth's had, pressing the knuckles to her cheek. Trying to comfort her, Elizabeth realized with a smile.

The poor girl. Turned into something inhuman, because of a need for revenge. Elizabeth felt a deep regret in her heart, looking at her, even as she smiled at the young girls attempt to make her feel better. She knew that one day Sally would be cured. That a man named Jack, so much like her father, would save her.

But she still felt guilt. Had Booker felt this way? Knowing he'd been the cause of so much pain?

For a moment, she remembered the future ahead of the tiny girl. A life amongst the ruins of a mad house, with a monster in a massive suit to guide her. Until a man would come from a lighthouse, for reasons he didn't even understand. A man who would save her, and show her the world beyond her steel walls.

As the former Lamb of Columbia smiled, she couldn't help but wonder at the coincidences.

But were they coincidences? Always a lighthouse. Always a man. Always a city. Revolving round and round, into doors and doors.

If only she could see her father one more time. Her only friend.

Footsteps clapped against the floor. Sally, surprised, dropped Elizabeth's hand, catching the doll's head as it fell from Elizabeth's fingers, and ran.

Elizabeth didn't blame her. In the madness that was now Rapture, there was no telling who the person coming now was, or what they would do to the little girl. She wondered, as blood poured from her head, and darkness filled her gaze, who it was. Maybe Atlas had decided to come back for something else, another round at beating her?

"Daddy she's hurt!" A young female voice said, panicked and scared"

"I know!" Elizabeth felt a sensation of warmth. A pair of arms wrapping around her. The voice, even as panicked as it sounded, soothed her. "Can we do anything?"

"Yes!" The girl said determinedly.

A loud noise filled the air. The arms carried her forward. The air became warmer. A needle was pressed to her arm. And she blacked out.

-

She woke in a bed, in a white room. A room on land.

Elizabeth knew this because of the excellent view of the window she had. A city, a large city. Cars, something she'd seen a few times through the doors, rolled down peaceful streets. The sky was blue, and a fresh wind brushed across her face from the open window, which was on her left.

The pale-skinned woman blinked, slowly. She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing for a moment. She tried to move her head, only to feel some panic at the feel of something stiff around her neck. Horrified thoughts of being held captive once again filled her, only to fade when experimentation proved that she could move her neck with freedom, if difficulty.

Her left arm moved, if a bit stiffly. Her right had a strange weight atop it, one that was warm, and soft. She slowly, painfully, looked down at that arm. She gasped.

Booker DeWitt. He was older. A bit more wrinkles dug into his tanned skin, but he still looked as strong as he had when he'd first come charging into her life.

His face was as unshaven as she remembered, his hair tousled. His clothes were different, but still the vest and shirt style he'd favored in their journey. He was sleeping on top of her arm in a chair next to her bed. There were dark rings under his eyes, and he smelled as if he hadn't been in a shower.

Elizabeth stared, uncomprehending, at the man who, despite only spending hours with him, she considered a father. Her lip trembled, fear, love, confusion melding with happiness.

How? How was he here? Where did he come from?

She reached her left arm out. A crazed part of her was terrified that if she moved to fast she would shatter the illusion, and wake up once more against a glass window in Rapture. Her hand, the nail polish scrubbed off at some point to leave clear nails, knuckles clean of the dirt her run through Rapture had pressed into the cracks of her skin, reached out.

Booker's hand reached out and gripped her wrist in a flash of speed. She gasped in surprise once more. His palm was rough, and his grip was unconsciously strong. Same as she remembered.

His eyes snapped open.

Elizabeth stared. His eyes, even with the dark rings around them, carried all the weight they always did.

"…Elizabeth?" She almost sobbed at the sound of his voice. Tears filled his eyes. His grip on her wrist softened, and a hand went to her cheek. "You… you're here?"

She openly cried now, silent tears leaving her eyes, the ones on the left side of her face pouring over his hand.

"Booker," She croaked out. "How… how is this possible?"

He laughed, the rough chuckle he always employed. There was a purity to it now, as though his increased age had given him a sense of happiness. It sounded good.

"I told you, remember?" He rose and kissed her forehead. For the first time in a long time, Elizabeth felt like a little girl. Like she was safe, and that things would be better soon. "I'll always come back."

A sound came at the door. They looked over to see it open. Just a crack, enough for the person to look inside. A single blue eye was looking at them from the crack.

Booker looked back at Elizabeth, smiling. "One second." He told her. He moved around the bed and walked over to the door. He kneeled down to a knee. "Hey, it's okay." He said softly. "Come in."

The person behind the door shook her head. "She won't like me." A tiny voice said in childish sort of fear.

"How do you know that without trying?" He said fondly. Booker held a hand out to the door. "Come here sweetie. I promise everything will be okay."

That seemed to be enough. The door slowly creaked open, and a girl took Booker's hand. She stepped inside.

She was wearing a cute blue dress, black boots, and a blue bow in her ink black hair. She shuffled shyly as Booker brought her into the room. He stood up and moved behind her, placing hands on her shoulder.

"Elizabeth," He said softly. "This is Anna. She's the one who opened the door to you. My daughter. Anna… this is your big sister."

Impossible. So completely impossible. The two of them in the same universe. Booker remembering everything. This adorable little girl biting her lip nervously as she looked at Elizabeth out of the corner of her eye. The Lutèce's would have had something to say about it, if they'd been there. In so many ways, this moment was impossible.

Elizabeth smiled widely. "Hello Anna." She said softly. "Thank you for saving me."

"Y-You're welcome." Ana shuffled. "But it wasn't me. It was Amy."

"Oh?" Elizabeth chuckled. "You'll have to tell me about that. And about this world."

Elizabeth looked down at her right hand. The pinky had a single knuckle missing. And she smiled once again.

-

 ** _One Month Later_**

Living in the city of Brockton Bay, in the year 2011, was something most people would have thought of as bad. Gangsters, supervillains, and drugs.

For the DeWitt family, it was heaven. They had each other. And that was enough.

Elizabeth, with her experience, spent time training Anna in her powers. They kept it secret, letting no one know. The three of them knew that if anyone discovered their abilities, they would try to force them to fight. And Booker and Elizabeth had had enough for a lifetime.

Still, Elizabeth and Anna were more than good enough with their powers to pull antiques and valuables from other universes. Things that pawn shops found valuable, if they didn't pull simple cash over.

They got enough to get a simple house. It was white with red trim, small, but comfortable, in a place where all the houses were exactly the same, something called 'suburbs' apparently. A room for the girls to share, a place for Booker to maintain his new PI business, and another room to hold the Sky Hook, Shotgun, and Hand Cannon.

Elizabeth started studying over a marvelous device called a computer, with something called 'the internet', and found herself enjoying things like jeans and sneakers. Some cash got them papers from unsavory characters, good enough to allow Anna to go to school and learn herself. Booker made a meager living spying on cheating husbands and clearing small cases. He got in trouble a time or two. But compared to the fury of Handymen, Songbird, and Elizabeth's cooking, a few tough guys with attitude fell before him with ease.

And they were happy.

Until the day Leviathan attacked.

They ran of course. They only packed a few things into backpacks. The plan had been simple. Just run to a secluded rooftop, and create a tear to safer world. It had been simple.

Until they stood there, watching the battle. Watching people die by the hundreds before a emotionless monster. The DeWitt family stared from the distance as waves of water flowed around the ankles of the beast, drowning people as they screamed for help.

"Daddy…" Anna looked up at her father, tears in her soulful eyes. "We… can't we…"

Booker looked down at her. He wanted to run. To take his girls away from all this. To rebuild once more, in a different world.

And he also didn't want to go. His family had built a life here. They'd been happy. His girls ate at a table with him every night. He and Elizabeth fought good naturedly over every little thing. He read stories to his girl.

"Boo-… Dad." His eyes lifted to Elizabeth. She smiled at him. "I don't want to run anymore."

"…Yeah." He sighed, ripping his backpack off. Rummaging inside, he brought out his guns, and strapped them to his side. Then he lifted his Sky Hook in his left hand, the grip familiar beneath his palm. He looked over at his girls, both smiling at him.

"Don't know how useful this will be." He admitted with a grin, waving his Sky Hook. His eldest daughter proud smile became a knowing smirk.

"Well," Elizabeth reached out a hand. With a whoosh of sound, metal rails popped into existence. They stretched across the city, winding and weaving between skyscrapers. "I could always access the version of Brockton Bay that has Columbia's technology?"

"Showoff." Booker leaned down and hugged Anna, then rose up to hug Elizabeth as well. "Okay girls. I'm going to attack a monster. Keep safe, and keep Daddy from dying, okay?"

"Yes Daddy!" Anna held out her own hand. In another whoosh, a massive being encased in leather and metal armor appeared, colored a washed out grey. One with a drill for a right arm. "Here! Bubbles can help!"

Elizabeth winced. "Please don't call it that."

Booker raised an eyebrow at the being. "All right. Come on… Bubbles." He turned to look at the rails, looked at his Sky Hook, and smiled.

"This brings me back." He said warmly. Then, with a whoop of joy, he leaped forward. The device on his hand attached to the rail, and he went flying across the city, shooting at the monster as he sped past several superheroes.

At the same time, the Big Daddy summoned by Anna stepped forwards off the roof, and landed in the water licking at the building. With far more speed than a being should have had, he charged forth.

And Elizabeth laughed. Even now, with everything going on, she laughed.

Because in the distance, she saw a tower sitting on a beach.

Even in this universe, with superheroes, monsters, and beings who could turn cities into graveyards.

"Always a lighthouse." She whispered as she looked at the tower.

"Always a man." Booker leapt from the metal rails, and began snapping out crystals from his arm, turning the area around Leviathan into a lightning field.

"Always a city." As the Big Daddy slammed his drill into the side of the Leviathan, heroes and villains rose to defend their home. Bugs flew across the battlefield in waves, water attacked like a sentient being.

Elizabeth looked down at Anna. The little girl cheered her father on, yelled for 'Bubbles' to do his best.

"Always a girl." With a wide smile, Elizabeth reached out and opened another tear.


End file.
